I’m sure you’ve heard of Wayfair. In fact, you’ve probably seen them advertised all over the internet.
You may have even bought some furniture from them. Heck, I spent last weekend putting together dining room chairs I ordered from them. The chairs are nice, the price was right, and I was definitely considering ordering from them again at a later date.
But today, we’re all seeing their name in the same sentence as “concentration camps” and that’s leaving a sour taste in a lot of people’s mouths.
I’m sure you’ve heard all about the camps being built to house immigrants coming across the southern border.
You’ve probably also heard about the appalling conditions migrants, and children in particular, are being held in.
I think we can all agree that people shouldn’t be sleeping on floors or refused basic hygiene or medial care.
Regardless of your opinion on what these camps should be called or even whether migrants should be detained in the first place, I think basic human decency should be considered.
Which is why I and many other people are so torn about the whole Wayfair thing.
We want the people in the concentration camps to have beds to sleep in, but we also don’t want businesses supporting those camps and making money off of them.
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We also don’t want to find out after the fact that we were even a little bit complicit, which is what’s happening for hundreds of Wayfair employees.
Imagine finding out after the fact that not only did those bed frames you packaged up were intended for those camps, but that the company you work for profited from the sale.
In a petition to the leadership team, 547 employees had two requests.
They asked that the company cease business with government contractor managing the camps, and that a code of ethics be established in regards to Wayfair’s Business-to-Business sales.
They also requested that the profits made from the previous sale be donated to RAICES
Leadership said no.
In their response, they stated: “… it is standard practice to fulfill orders for all customers and we believe it is our business to sell to any customer who is acting within the laws of the countries within which we operate.”
So the employees made plans for a walkout.
It’s to take place in Boston on June 26, where around 5,000 of the company’s 13,000 employees work at their headquarters.
The official @wayfairwalkout Twitter account has been making sure that everyone knows the details.
They’re also continuing to work with the company’s leadership towards a compromise.
Earlier this morning, Wayfair announced a $100,000 donation to the Red Cross, which is great, but as @wayfairwalkout notes , the Red Cross doesn’t have anything to do with the concentration camps in question or helping the people within them.
Hopefully, the leadership will come to an agreement, since the reported $86,000 in profit they made off the sale can’t possibly be worth this kind of publicity.
h/t: _LA Times